By: Ethan DeVey

Nov. 3, 2016

The boys and girls cross country teams are off to a really great job with districts. On the 5000 meter run at the Invitational Richardson Park we placed 8th out of 14 teams. Robby Voss with 17th place with a time of 16.37! Followed by Jacob Bergren and Parker Cook with times of 17.30. At the Henley Invitational meet both the boys and girls phoenix team’s got 1st place! Boys with a score of 27, and girls with 44! Robbys Voss(16.43), Parker cook (17.34), Jacob Begren(17.39) and Nathan Watt(17.50) all placed in the top 5 out of 74 people! For the girls, Phoenix had Shayla Portratz in 1st with a time of 20.14! Way to take 1st for the Invitations!  

The coach for the cross country team is John Cornet. Cornet teaches here at Phoenix High School in the social studies department. The assistant coach for cross country is Carolena Campbell, she teaches emergency care and body works at Phoenix High School. The athletic director is Toby Walker he is the coach and athletic counselor. The practices are after school, runners exercise two to nine miles every week day. The team only gets 1 water break at the halfway mark, or if it’s a longer run they get two. All start to run together, then later they break off and pace themselves.

Mr. Cornet said that everyone has improved in terms of race tactics and the returners are stronger than they were a year ago. The goals for next year was “Both teams qualify to state. Hope to have a lot of new people to replenish those who are graduating. Half of the 2016 team are seniors.” “The chances of winning state is slim but the boys team are ranked third is state behind 2 really strong teams. It’s doable but will take a great race. Robby Vos and Shayla Potratz, both have moved into the top six for their event in school history, and both of whom won the conference title! This is the eighth consecutive year the girls have qualified for State Champions. The boys placed second at the State Championships in each of the past two years, and third the year before.”

The Skyline Conference Championships were October 26th and went amazingly well with the boys in 1st with 4 boys in the top 10, and 2 girls in the top 10! Robby Vos finished 1st with a time of 16:58 following with Jacob Bergren with a time of 18.11. The Girls finishing in 2nd, led by Shayla Potratz finishing 1st with a time of 20.50! Followed by Potratz from Phoenix was Lupita Alegria with a time of 23.13. Way to go Pirates, come support them on November 5th at Lane Community College in Eugene to see them win the State Championships!